Page:The deplorable history of the Catalans, from their first engaging in the war, to the time of their reduction. (1714).djvu/60

 Goodness, which continues to comfort us with the August Presence of the Empress and Queen our Mistrefs, who is the Joy of this Province. Sir, we beseech your Catholick Majesty with the most profound Respect, to be pleased to persevere in so important and necessary a Resolution which you have taken, to maintain and establish  Spain under your Majesty's Dominion by Force of Arms: And if it happen that Fortune decides otherwise by the Disposition of a Treaty of Peace; and if the Domains of this Monarchy must be divided, we most respectfully beg your Majesty to protect Catalonia and the adjacent Provinces with all your Power, in such manner, that if they cannot be saved with the entire Body of the Monarchy, they may at least maintain themselves separately. We will no longer interrupt your Majesty by repeating the Importance of the Services done by this Province, which has deserved so well of the Common Cause, and by representing to you the Conditin to which it is reduced for having done its Duty. But we should think our selves wanting to our Zeal, and to the Obligation we have to your Majesty, if we did not take the Liberty to inrrest you to have in deep Consideration the State to which Affairs are like to be reduced, without a very firm and very prudent Conduct at this Juncture. We offer to your Majesty all the Forces of Catalnia, our Estates and our Lives, for accomplishing your favred Imperial and Catholick Majesty's Designs, and for the most serene Empress our Soveraign: for we consider that we are obliged so to do by our Duty towards God and towards your Majesty, for the Security and Tranquillity of